Monthly Archive for October, 2014

: October, 2014

In the much-ballyhooed midsize sedan segment – it’s the most competitive slot in U.S. auto sales – it basically comes down to two cars, Toyota Camry and Honda Accord. For sure, there are the interlopers, such as VW Passat and the Hyundai Sonata/Kia Optima twins. But Toyota and Honda dominate. Enter Nissan. More specifically, enter […] …

From the new Mustang to the recent crop of Dodge muscle cars, old is new again in the car world. Take a look at how the new cars compare to the originals by using the slider on the photos. Some are more faithful than others. Porsche 911 Ford Mustang Volkswagen Beetle […] …

Actors on motorcycles aren’t all that unusual — the 20th century prototype may be Steve McQueen — but on the other hand there aren’t that many thespians who go into the business itself. Now there are countless actors riding around, on everything from Ariels to Zundapps and a few better known brands in between (BMW, […] …

The title doesn’t exist, but in this essay, we’re creating it: the Subaru is the National Car of New England and, for that matter, it’s the National Car of the Northwest. They are both geographical areas that get feisty weather – rain, high winds, snow, blizzards, mud, muck – and feisty weather is not great […] …

It’s just wild, this big, hulking Toyota Tundra. It’s a truck that leads at least three lives – by day, it hauls the hogs and the hay, the groceries and the grills. In the evening, it dons its leather “1794” livery, with the hot and cold running seats, and heads for the Stockman’s Ball. Its […] …

We’ve seen the prices of collector cars go through the roof recently — $38 million paid at auction during Monterey Motor Week for a Ferrari 250GTO (another one sold privately last year for about $52 million). But what about motorcycles? Surely, there are some gems out there. Well, yes, there are. Brough Superiors and Vincent […] …

Maybe it’s time Infiniti got some respect. Sure, it gets respect in some of the car journals, and the Car Guys know Infiniti and nod sagely when it comes up in conversation. But by and large, Lexus is still the leader in the world of upscale Asian cars. Too bad. I just spent a week with an […] …

Just because the Pebble Beach concours is in the rear view mirror doesn’t necessarily mean that’s the end of concours season in California. A few weeks ago, Danville, the East Bay suburb of San Francisco and home, incidentally, of the Blackhawk Museum, one of the better car museums in the country, held its own concours […] …

A week after teasing the Internet with a cryptic tweet about unveiling “the D,” Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk on Thursday night finally explained what he meant, debuting a new, dual-motor version of the Model S sedan with all-wheel drive. At an event in Los Angeles County, Musk said the improvements — offered as an […] …

The 2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee is an anomaly. Here is a big, two-and-a-half ton SUV, a brawny, muscle-bound car with A-pillars thicker than a wrestler’s arm and a step up into the cabin that would challenge acrobats. It’s a no-nonsense truck. But it’s also a dainty fuel-sipper. At least, the turbocharged V6 EcoDiesel is a […] …